Japan’s entertainment industry must “catch the wave” of global streaming hits like Shogun, according to one of the stars of new Amazon television show Like A Dragon: Yakuza.
The crime-thriller series – recently unveiled at Comic-Con 2024 in San Diego, California, and out on Prime Video in October – is based on a popular and long-running Sega video game series about Tokyo crime gangs.
“It makes me really happy, and it’s only recently that we’re getting this recognition” internationally, said Ryoma Takeuchi, the star of Like A Dragon: Yakuza.
Co-star Kento Kaku said it is important for Japan to “catch the wave” of success stories like Shogun by making more shows that are “recognised internationally”.
“We have to be the ones to lead the way,” said the 35-year-old.
Based on a long-running video game series, Like A Dragon: Yakuza is set in a Tokyo nightlife district modelled on the real-life red-light area of Kabukicho.
The action hops between 1995 and 2005, as a group of childhood friends are drawn into the world of the yakuza in various ways.
Kazuma Kiryu (Takeuchi) has become a fearsome but morally conflicted warrior.
“I had to take the risk to build a character from scratch … he’s very beefed up on the outside but intricate on the inside,” said Takeuchi.
There is this swell of interest and love for Japan around the world
Beloved Japanese video game characters like Nintendo’s Mario and Sega’s Sonic have also recently enjoyed huge success at the box office. Those followed years in which film adaptations of video games generally struggled.
Like A Dragon executive producer Erik Barmack suggested that previous flops were the result of Japanese creations being “pulled over to Hollywood” and stripped of their context.
“Game players particularly can sniff out when something doesn’t feel right,” Barmack said.
With the new series, Amazon insisted on making “a local story … authentic to its roots in Japan”. It is a strategy shared with Shogun, from the Disney-owned FX network.
Although shot in Canada, Shogun meticulously transported viewers to the intricate and deadly world of the early 17th-century court politics of feudal Japan.
James Farrell, vice-president of Amazon MGM Studios for International Originals, said there was never any question of filming Like A Dragon in English.
“There is this swell of interest and love for Japan around the world,” he said.
“The games are popular outside Japan because they’re Japanese,” added Barmack.
